Privilege

Ethnicity, gender, nationality and frameworks of opportunity influence whether a person bears the burden of need or enjoys the benefits of privilege. How do we bridge the gap to achieve a community focused on a common good? […]Read More

As we celebrate our freedom in the US this week with barbecues and fireworks, hundreds of children are imprisoned in atrocious conditions at our nation’s border. Will we risk our freedom to stand up for the least of these? […]Read More

Wealth is a given in society, so how should you use it? You can protect your privileged status and accumulate more wealth for yourself. Or you can leverage it to serve the urgent needs of our common life. […]Read More

It’s hard to comprehend why a mother would put her child in harm’s way by trying to cross the border. However, those of us who are white women must stop judging and confront our privilege. […]Read More

Ought I to repent of being white and male? I have had this question posed to me in one form or another on several occasions over the years. As I explained in my previous post, I think I have discerned three distinct meanings of the call for white people and males to repent for being […]Read More

Over the years of my life in modern (or postmodern) American academics, I have several times read and heard that white men ought to “repent” of being white and male. I have long been a strong supporter of some liberation theologies. That is so much the case that one of my former students wrote a […]Read More

The soft rain slowly fell just beyond the edge of the balcony. Because of its larger size, this blessed appendage – which hangs out over the street, four stories below – is referred to by the Greeks as a veranda. How cool was my elevated seat at noon on this October day in Athens. How […]Read More

Privilege can be a terrible burden. I don’t know that I really understood this before the first day that I was in a local village in El Salvador. Some clothing had been sent with our mission team to share with the children of the community. Although our team had not intended to be involved with […]Read More

Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians provides an excellent illustration of tearing down walls that separate according to power and privilege. Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians provides an excellent illustration of tearing down walls that separate according to power and privilege. Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem was constructed to create segregation base on ethnicity, gender and privilege. […]Read More